BBC sets up complaints line for 'too much TV coverage' of Prince Philip's death

The BBC are just ridiculous. North Korean levels of hagiography. 24 hours of blanket television and radio coverage. When the Queen goes fuck knows how long it will drag on for.

It is still going on. BBC1 has had a news special all morning. Of course it is a major event, but the BBC has gone overboard. I suspect they are trying to avoid the kind of criticism they got when the Queen Mother died, and a news presenter didn’t have a black tie to hand. The tabloids went mental. Even as a republican I have every sympathy for the Queen and her family, but turning this into a free for all is undignified. Reporters have even been interviewing small children about what a remote 99 year old figure meant to them. Enough.

I'm totally ignoring it all.

Must be like when Di died. Got to the point where I thought, fuck me, has the world come to a complete halt‽‽‽

A news announcement, a documentary in the evening, and one hour devoted to the funeral would be appropriate. Instead: North Korean levels of propaganda.

WHAT DID HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS MEAN TO YOU?!!!!

Large sailor cock that I never got to suck in its youth.

Haven't turned the telly on since the old fart checked out because I knew the stations have weeks of stored griefreels to run. And run them they will. The point about North Korean levels of hagiography is spot on. On the other hand, social media is having a field day with the most disrespectful of memes, which is closer to the actual national mood.

Just as well Simon McCoy has just left the Beeb. I don't think he could have faked enough sombreness to make it through an announcement he couldn't care less about.

They should probably have shifted main programming to BBC2 or even BBC4. On the other hand, the BBC doesn't have much royal programming normally. This weekend's schedules before Philip died included 6 hours of primetime royal documentaries but on Channels 4 and 5, nothing on the BBC.

This will probably go on for the next week.

Much of the appeal, I think, is seeing the military might and polish and pomp out in the streets, and hearing all the ripping accounts from high-status figures coming out of the woodwork to talk on the telly. It makes us all feel, just for a short while, like we’re still that gleaming Empire of memory. It’s not really about the mad old coot, or his nutty family.

The British public is happiest when the Royal Family is just quietly doing their jobs, like Princess Anne, and they don't have them shoved in their faces. It's the very opposite of the celebrity system. It was only Diana (and later Meghan) to played that game.

Why is OP crossed out?

The anti Sussex paid trolls mass FF anything anti royal. This is their job. Anti royal threads don't please their paymasters.

Britain is Trump country now and they’re in full nationalism mode. It’s only going to get worse.

[quote] The anti Sussex paid trolls mass FF anything anti royal. This is their job.

Seek help.

Oh honey, they aren't paid trolls, they're obsessives, people with light mental illnesses who spend all day long online on multiple forums with multiple accounts, bitching about Meghan Markle.

I miss the days of paid trolls! Remember threads in 2016 where some trollfarm intern would post "Hillary is not woman for presidential job, she is warmonger with long history of nuclear sales"? I would give ANYTHING to have them back over this current crop of losers and dipshits.

BBC’s ratings just plunged over this:

The overnight ratings are absolutely fascinating.

Total viewing was down by about 15% compared to last Friday.

ITV dropped below a million viewers in the 9pm primetime slot, which is almost unheard of.

At that point Ch4 had more viewers than BBC1, BBC2, ITV & Ch5 combined.

Comment from a Brit:

Forgive me for being indifferent to the passing of the 99 year-old husband of an unelected head of state who has a personal net worth of more than $500m.

Forgive me for recoiling at being told - in the middle of a global pandemic, at the tail end of a third national lockdown, with 150,000+ lives lost in the last year (and the lives and livelihoods of countless more disrupted) - that for eight days the country is to mourn a member of a family who are a stubborn leftover stain from the days of Empire and colonialism and whose lavish upper class lifestyles we are expected to help foot the bill for. In 2021.

Forgive me for wanting the news I read and watch to be presented in a neutral, balanced way - not wall-to-wall coverage of fawning, deferential idolatry and "good old days" nostalgia exploding in a near-total vacuum of critical analysis.

TOO much coverage by the BBC of the death of that RACIST OLD CUNT.

People are now competing against each other as to who is the most outraged at the BBC's coverage.

Blue tick accounts competing for likes and retweets by making variations of the same comments.

It's entirely predictable.

The BBC did make an error putting the same coverage on BBC1 and BBC2, but it was one night. A normal Saturday and on the 5 main channels there's a choice of live rugby, a repeat of an antiques show, live horse racing, a repeat of a show where people stay in each others hotels and rate them, and a classic film.

How about just changing the channel or putting on a DVD or taking a walk, a nap, having a shag, or anything else that we do to distract ourselves? Or is common sense a problem nowadays?

[quote]How about just changing the channel or putting on a DVD or taking a walk, a nap, having a shag, or anything else that we do to distract ourselves? Or is common sense a problem nowadays?

But then they wouldn't have something to be outraged over.

Good point, R20. So you and I can sit back and watch and have a good laugh making fun of their neurosis. Free entertainment for us!

The UK folks on my Twitter timeline didn't have anything to change the channel to, apparently. Some channels like BBC4 were just completely off the air.

I gather there was a finale of a competition show that was bumped and caused a stir, as well as some light entertainment people look forward to all week.

Every soap thread we used to have had at least a dozen people complaining about when their soap was bumped for some breaking news, so I don't know why Dataloungers are saying Brits are just whiners about this.

They should devote BBC1 to Philip coverage but let the other channels go on as normal. Then people at least have a choice. As it is, even people who were fond of the old coot will grow to resent him after being bombarded with tributes 24/7.

[quote]The UK folks on my Twitter timeline didn't have anything to change the channel to, apparently. Some channels like BBC4 were just completely off the air.

FFS. These people have the mentality of Trumpers. If they've got Twitter they've heard of iPlayer. They just want to compete in the Outrage Olympics.

[quote]I gather there was a finale of a competition show that was bumped and caused a stir, as well as some light entertainment people look forward to all week.

The final of The Circle went ahead on Channel 4 as planned.

It wasn't The Circle r24, let me see if I can find the tweets again and get the name of the show.

Apparently iPlayer shows were being removed and bumped for Philip coverage, too. It wasn't a case of just being able to go to iPlayer and see the show you missed.

Datalounge has risen magnificently to the occasion. Cunt away!

Is everyone [British] complaining about this also in favour of scrapping the license fee?

R28 don't be silly. It's the license fee that keeps up the high standards of the BBC.

There are elements of the right and left who both despise the licence fee. Both sides think the BBC is biased against them.

[Quote] Both sides think the BBC is biased against them.

That's what good objective journalism is about.

If people think this is excessive, just imagine if he'd been killed when he crashed his car two years ago. The media would have gone berserk.

I ended up watching Gogglebox.

Any earn the Duke of Edinburgh award as a kid?

They are devoting one full day of coverage to each year of St. Phillip's life.

It's funny people complain about this 'once-in -a-lifetime-coverage" but when it comes to listening to Trump 24/7 (old Twitter account), most folks don't care, think it's 'normal' for a leader to rag on about inane topics relevant only to himself. Or the constant and I do mean **constant" media coverage of the shameless Kardashians. I don't know. This was a historic figure, lived during both peaceful, and turbulent times, campaigned for worthwhile causes.

As England looks to a post Brexit era, the Royal Family is its best chance for a distinctive role on the world stage.

R19, you beat me to it. If the BBC watchers are so desperate for telly entertainment that they are raving about this coverage, it doesn't say much about the rest of their lives.

Why the fuck is this thread greyed out?

Fuck Monarchists

[quote] 'too much TV coverage' of Prince Philip's death

I felt the same when Diana and later when Michael Jackson died. "Coverage" is one thing. "Saturation" is another.

I keep clicking on these threads with BBC in title, expecting something much different.

Completely overboard

Bump

Monarchists are a sad lot. Pity them

And we know who was the first to call!!!

For some reason I have R43, R44 and R45 on ignore.

Imagine being such a sad cunt you repeatedly bump a thread that no one is really interested in.

He's probably spent most of the weekend complaining to the BBC with fake names and email addresses.

[quote] complaining

It's the favourite pastime in Welfare State Britain.

As an Irish journalist wrote, living next to England and its monarchy is like living next door to a batshit neighbour who is into clowns. They talk endlessly about clowns, they stick images of clowns in their windows, and they even have molesting clowns — arrogant lying ones whose fortunes are subsidised by the State. How much fun is that!

[quote] Irish journalist.

R49 Typical Irish remark. All abuse and no intellect or debate.

Here in the Southern US, Prince Philip was a very small news item. Not a lot of Anglophiles in a demographic with most people of either white French, German or Irish ancestry— and African-Americans. The black demographic is mostly interested in Markle.

I love the personality of HRH PP — he was a old-school British codger that could curse and relate with the Everyman. I think that’s why him and Lillibet were perfect royals in a evolving society. When Her Majesty kicks the can, afterwards I expect an amplification of the Prince Andrew scandal in the news, large amounts of Republican backlash, requesting the final abolishment of the monarchy. Prince Charles would do a service by abdicating the throne for William. William and Kate are the future of the Royal family and rightfully so. Sorry Harry, you’re just not making the lineage this lifetime. Hope you’ll make it in 70 years!

Pardon my scratch typing, using my iphone.

[quote] an Irish journalist wrote, living next to England and its monarchy is like living next door to a batshit

R49 Ireland two greatest geniuses couldn't wait to get out of Ireland.

R51. You sound like a KP bot. Skipping Charles only benefits two people. Kate and William. Charles at least has a bit of Charisma. Kate and William just don't. They are forgettable.

R54 What is KP?

Keratosis Pilaris?

Without putting too fine a point on it, I think William has more balls than Charles. "Charisma", what little he does have, has gotten Charles nowhere, absolutely nowhere, unfortunately.